Unusual Job Unusual Find
by coffup
Summary: [SS] Syaoran has an unusual job. Sakura is an unusual find. Can he make Sakura his permanently before his beautiful find becomes lost to him forever?
1. Meeting Her

Mmhmm… I know what you're all thinking.

_Here comes Nisha with yet another story, when she can't even update **Find Hope.** Why doesn't she update? Where is my underwear? Blah, blah, blah. What a loser. Maybe if I give her enough reviews, she'll start updating. _

WELL… I was struck with this idea while I was walking to my friends house, so SHUT UP. I'm not updating **Find Hope** because I don't have a clue where the plot is going. Your underwear is in the refridgerator. And as for the remark about me being the loser… go look in a mirror. =P And yes, reviews will probably make me update faster, but I'll probably update another story. I'm so cute when I'm agitated. LoL

Anywho… here's a new story that I like to call… **Unusual Job; Unusual Find. **[And yes… I know that titles are meant to be _italicized_, and not done in **bold. **I just like it this way.]

Btw… Eriol = OOC… big time… I think… yeah…

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**[Initial Beginning]**

"…" Speech

_Italics _or '…' Thoughts

[I got sunshine in a bag. I'm useless, but not for long, the future is coming on….] A/N's

_Disclaimer: I don't own any songs by the Gorillaz, I do, however, believe them to be an awesome band. I also do not own anything to do with CCS… I don't even have a CCS sticker. I do, however, own any and all original characters that you don't recognize from anywhere else. ('Cause they're original, DUH.) And so, that means that Tony is MINE. And only mine. MWAHAHA… HA… ha… I'll shut up now… soon…. Now… yeah. Now.. ]_

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**Unusual Job; Unusual Find**

**Chapter One**

**Meeting Her**

* * *

_I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad_

_I got sunshine, in a bag_

_I'm useless, but not for long_

_The future is comin' on_

_I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad_

_I got sunshine, in a bag_

_I'm useless, but not for long_

_The future is comin' on_

_It's comin' on_

_It's comin' on_

_It's comin' on_

_ - Gorillaz; Clint Eastwood_

* * *

_I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad. I got sunshine, in a bag. I'm useless, but not for long. The future is coming on…._ As Syaoran scoped the landscape around him an old tune drifted through his head. At this time of day, (about 6:30 am,) and in this kind of weather, (overcast and dreary) the small path leading through a tiny park was virtually unpopulated except for himself and a female who was walking in front of him. The path was used by people who lived nearby the subway to get to their houses more quickly than by walking around it.

The girl in front of him didn't know that he was behind her; he was very quiet, near silent, he liked to believe. One didn't do this kind of work day after day without acquiring great strength in the area of stealth. There were, of course, two of his friends hiding out somewhere nearby in the background, awaiting his signal. He knew where they were, to him, they were easily visible, but to any other human, including the female walking ahead of him, they were invisible.

In the far bushes, much further along the path, was Eriol, his blue-haired, blue-eyed best friend who wore silver glasses that constantly fell down his nose and needed to be pushed back up. He was squatting in a small hole they had created months before. He was awaiting the signal.

Tony, a valued associate of his, with his electric blue mohawk, was waiting for them in their van. The van was stalling nearby, on a side road that was clearly visible from all parts of the path. Syaoran hoped he was paying attention and not high. Though, on second thought, it was probably better if he was high; he seemed to do his best thinking when he was high.

Syaoran himself was creeping behind the female in front of him. He wore a dark blue button up shirt, black pants, and dark shiny shoes. This outfit allowed him to blend in with the regular people who walked up and down this path. His messy brown hair, which could never be tamed with hair gel, no matter how hard he tried, was flopping over his eyes, but by no means ruining his vision. He was watching the girl ahead of him closely, trying to see if she would be the one for today.

He focused his eyes on his prize. She was short, just below average; he would put her height at about five feet and an inch or so. Her hair was short, shoulder length, but it wasn't in one of those no-nonsense cuts; her hair seemed to be layered. Her hair was also too dark to be dirty blonde and too light to be brown, so he settled on calling it auburn. It reminded him of maple flooring. She was wearing a light jacket, powder blue in colour. Her jeans were dark blue and seemed a little bit too long on her since they drooped a bit over her boots. A large, black side bag hit her thigh every time she took a step.

He thought that she was okay for the job. Her clothing was a lot more conservative than the ones he usually picked up were, but maybe this one was going to visit her parents or something. Her walk was what determined her fate with him. That confident walk, with that flirtatious roll of her hips, could not be mimicked; it was the real thing. That was the walk of a confident, self-assured, popular bitch. He hated that walk and the women that walked that way. That was why he always chose those women to use for the job. It was kind of like revenge….

He ground his teeth together. He would not lose sight of his goal. He needed this woman for a job, last day, he hadn't gotten anyone and the natives, as his boss liked to call them, had become restless. He signalled frantically to Eriol; it was time to get it on.

He started walking quickly, opting for the squishy grass rather that the crunching gravel; he didn't want his prey, er, victim, er… find to hear him. He smiled cynically, she didn't stand a chance; none of them ever did. He smiled again, ready to begin his daily ritual. He felt a predator, but he didn't like that word. It made his work seem… bad. He liked to call himself an archaeologist and his prey, his find. "Find" was so much more pleasing to the ear than "prey" or "victim." At least, that was what he thought.

As he neared her, he sped up, as usual.

He stuck out his hand, ready to grab her shoulder, as usual.

Then he tripped, **not** as usual. In fact, that was very unusual. He knew this path as well as the back of his hand. How on earth could he have tripped?

He grasped her shoulder harshly, trying to keep his balance. Things were not going according as usual. Both of their eyes opened wide as their equilibriums were set off balance. Since she hadn't been expecting something to fall onto her from behind, she stumbled forward and so did he, before she caught herself. Unfortunately for him, he fell straight down onto his ass.

He looked down at the ground and groaned inwardly. There was a hole in the ground surrounded by a bunch of rocks. He had tripped over a rock. _One of those little kids we saw here yesterday must have put it there._ He felt very stupid right there. He wondered if there was a way to salvage the plan. He needed a find.

His find's head twirled around and soon he was looking into her wide eyes; her wide green eyes. They were emanated shock and curiosity. Of course, who wouldn't be curious if someone magically appeared at your side and fell over flat onto his ass? As he looked into her eyes, he also noticed something else. Something that he instantly recognized; he had seen it many times in his own eyes in the mirror and in the eyes of his friends. It was the deep sorrow that haunted their souls; a deep terror that arose within them every time something out of the norm happened. The second she whirled about, the terror had surfaced in her eyes, and then, instantly, it was covered up and replaced by concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her soft voice ringing like bells in his ears. She held out her arm and helped him up.

"Uh," Syaoran couldn't believe he had labelled her wrong. She was everything but a stuck up snob; no bitch he had ever met had held terror in her eyes like that; that terror was what his friends felt, what he felt. He had always been right, at least, until now. He straightened, slightly dumbfounded.

"I didn't hear you," she continued on. Her back was to the bushes. "I had my headphones on." She smiled. _She has a nice smile…_ He wondered where that thought came from.

He saw a movement behind her; it was Eriol. _ERIOL! _His mind screamed. He curled his hands into fists. Then he started to use sign language; quickly, he finger signed "S-T-O-P" hoping that Eriol would get the message. "G-O-B-A-C-K-S-T-O-P"

"Good thing I was here to break your fall," she said.

He stopped signing once he realized that Eriol was going back into the bushes, a confused look on his face. "Uh… yeah. Luck." He smiled and scratched the back of his nervously.

She looked over her shoulder, "Who are you signing to?" All that she could see was a small rustle in the bushes. At least, that was what he hoped she had seen. It would have been better if she had seen nothing.

He realized how badly he had misjudged this emerald-eyed young female. She was far form the social ditz he had first perceived her to be. And now, she knew American Sign Language? How… intriguing.

"Uh, no one… I thought I saw a dog, but it was nothing." He seemed to be saying "uh" a lot more that usual. He tried to direct the conversation towards her. "You know ASL?"

"Enough finger spelling to say my name, hi, help, and blah de blah, blah, blah…" She trailed off, waving her arm up and behind her. Her sleeve fell down and he caught sight of a spiked leather bracelet. Yet another interesting surprise had come from this female. He wondered how many more she held.

"Well, I guess that I'll be going now," she said, with a smile. She gave him a small wave and turned around. "Bye."

"Oh, no, wait!" He didn't want her to leave. He thought quickly, trying to think of a way to stay close to her. "I'll, uh, walk with you." He wondered how well she knew the area. "I'll make sure you don't get lost." He waited for her reply. It would probably be the old cliché about knowing the area like the back of your hand. Or something like, "Oh, that would be lovely, I'm new here." The second response would help out his plan.

"I won't," she said, walking away, revealing nothing.

"But I insist." And he did. He fell in step with her.

"O… kay…" she said, sounding confused.

"So…" he started, wondering what on earth to start a conversation about. He was saved from this difficult task when a voice called out from behind them and they felt claps on their shoulders.

Eriol was behind them. Sakura rotated her shoulder, causing Eriol's hand to fall from her shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps, he didn't want anyone to know that he did notice.

"Hey," he drawled out to Syaoran. He used his now free hand to push his glasses up his nose. "What's going on?"

Any normal, random person who was walking past the scene at that point would have thought that Eriol was just asking a normal routine question. Syaoran, however, knew that Eriol, at the moment, was very confused and upset at losing a chance to bag a find. When Eriol said, "What's going on?" he really meant, "Why the fuck didn't we go through with it?" He just didn't like to say things like that in front of females; he was a very proper young man, even though his choice of jobs went against much of what normal proper men believed in. The fact that he didn't want the female in subject to find out that he was talking about her probably had something to do with his choice of words as well. It wasn't like he could say, "Why aren't I duct-taping this chick's mouth shut?" right in front of her.

"Just walking," replied Syaoran, trying to seem casual. He hoped Tony didn't do anything stupid. They had reached a street now, and the sidewalk was rather large, so they all fit in on it comfortably. The houses smiled down at them from either side of the street.

"I can see that," said Eriol. "And just who is your nice little friend?"

"This?" asked Syaoran. "Oh, this is… this is…" He turned to the girl apologetically, "I'm sorry, I think I forgot your name."

"I didn't give it," she said, continuing to walk ahead.

Eriol smiled, and Syaoran frowned. Good things did not happen when Eriol smiled like that. "So what _is _your name?"

"I don't have one."

The men exchanged glances. _What? She doesn't have a name?_

Eriol cleared his throat. "And why don't you have a name?"

"Because my dad was a loser and decided to give me a number as a name. He gave me the name Twenty-Two after the number of times he had been abducted by aliens. He wanted to name me Sex, but my mom disagreed. So here I am, Twenty-Two."

"Wh… That is one _MESSED UP NAME_," said Eriol.

"Tell me about it," said the girl, hiding a snicker.

"Your dad must have been baked when he did that!"

Syaoran gave him a not so gentle nudge in the ribs before hissing, "She's being sarcastic."

Eriol looked confused. "OHH…." He said to the girl. "You're being sarcastic."

"Oh my god," she said. "You found me out. Somebody give the guy a prize."

Eriol smiled. "I get to choose my prize. I want to know your name."

"Bob," said the girl.

Eriol gave her a funny look. "Bob?"

"Yes," she replied in an icy tone. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No… No, that's an interesting name," said Eriol. He wondered if she was being sarcastic.

"I am being sarcastic again," she said, seeming to read his mind. He wondered if she was able to do that too.

"And yes, I read minds," she said.

He gave her a weird look. "Tell me what I'm thinking right now," he said, scrunching up his face and shutting his eyes. "You'll never guess."

She sighed and walked a bit faster. Syaoran squeezed in between her and Eriol. She rolled her eyes and said, "No, I won't sleep with you."

Eriol's jaw dropped to the floor. "How did you do that?" he hollered. He raced around her and stood in her path. "That's amazing! Tell me what I'm thinking now!" He shut his eyes again and started licking his lips.

"Oh my god!" The female smacked him on the head and stormed off. "You dirty pervert! How dare you think things like that about me!"

Eriol stared after her. He looked to Syaoran. "I don't get it," he said.

Syaoran sighed and walked after the girl. "She was testing you, I think. I think it was to see if you really were thinking about having sex with her. And ta da! You walked right into her trap and answered YES!"

"Whoa…" Eriol blew out a deep breath. "She's smart."

"Very smart." Syaoran wondered just how smart she really was. He had already misjudged her several times. "Go scout up ahead, go around the park and come down this street, we might be able to cut her off." Eriol nodded and sped up the street and back across the path.

Syaoran sped up and caught up with the girl, putting his hand to her shoulder yet again. She whirled about, ready to slap him, but he ducked. "SORRY!" he screamed. She gave him an odd look. He bowed his head. "Really, I am sorry for my friend's behaviour, he's such a loser sometimes." She looked at him as if wondering whether to believe him or not.

"You see, I really need your help. I'm doing a project for school, and I need to get some input from random people." He smiled at her. "Could you help me?"

She smiled and said, "Fine, I'll help. But if your friend comes back, I'm going to smack him."

Syaoran laughed; his laugh was hollow and dry, as though he didn't use it much. He did use it a lot, though, and that was why his laugh was so hoarse.

"So, what's your project?" Light rain began to fall onto them as they stood on the sidewalk.

"I'm doing a study on what kind of music people listen to." The lie slipped easily off of his tongue. He was good at spontaneous lies. It was one of the many talents he had.

"Oh…?" Her green eyes looked at him curiously. He wondered what she was thinking

The rain started to fall harder. She pulled an umbrella out of her bag as he talked. "Well, basically, all I need to know is what your favourite CD is right now, which artist it's by, and your favourite song."

She opened the umbrella up. It was entirely black except for this odd swirling silver pattern at the bottom. She tilted her head at him. "And where are you going to write this down?"

He thought quickly. "I have a great think tank," he said, tapping the side of his head and grinning sheepishly. "I can remember so many things, it's amazing. I don't even have to take notes in class." He wasn't bragging. When he had been in class, he had never had to take notes.

"My favourite CD right now is Meteora by Linkin Park and my favourite song right now is their latest, Hybrid Theory. Don't you just love it?" She smiled at him expectantly.

He vaguely remembered watching some sort of special on someone he thought was called Linkin Park. The words Hybrid Theory had been dropped during it. "Yeah," he said, "It's one of my favourites too." He smiled at her. Maybe she wasn't as smart as he thought she was. "Can I come under your umbrella?"

She nodded, her face all smiles. _Oh how easy,_ he thought. _It's like taking candy from a baby; a very beautiful baby that is. _ He took in the scent of her perfume. He wondered if she was really stupid or just really nice. Maybe she was both. It wasn't impossible. In fact, that combination was highly possible. He realized that she smelled like cherry blossoms… _Yum…_

Her voice broke his thoughts. She spoke silently, enunciating every word. "If you don't move five feet away from me in five seconds, I am going to scream so loud that every single person living on this street will wake up and wonder who was just murdered."

Syaoran stared down at her. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded yet again.

"You heard me," she said, her eyes hard as emeralds and just as beautiful. "One…"

"I don't think I understand -- "

"Two… I think you do."

"But what did I do wrong?" Syaoran sputtered.

"Three… you were careless."

"How so?"

"Four… Hybrid Theory is related to Linkin Park, but it's not their newest song. Hybrid Theory is the name they first had."

Syaoran's eyes widened. Again he had underestimated this extraordinary female. "But…"

Her head tilted to the side, "And also, why would you do a school project in the summer? And, if you really are in summer school why are you wearing something a businessman would wear? And, I really didn't buy that bull about having an awesome memory. There are only a few people with photographic memories; I am one of them." She let a small silence hang in the air. Syaoran realized how smart she was.

"Five," toned out her voice. "Too late." She smiled and for a second all he could hear was the silence again. Then she turned around, bent over and a horrible high-pitched screeching noise filled the air.

_Oh god, she has a whistle! How could I have missed **that**?_ He grabbed her from behind and groped at her neck and realized there was no whistle about her neck. He grasped at her hands until he realized that they were by her sides, fists tightly clenched.

_Oh my… she's making that noise by herself._ He slapped his hand over her mouth, expecting the screeching to stop. But it didn't. Instead, it kept going, shrill enough to begin to hurt his ears.

_Okay, then she's doing it through her nose!_ He let go of her mouth and squeezed her nose. He expected the shriek to stop. But again, it didn't. _Oh great… the only way I can stop it is by suffocating her_. He really didn't want to do that. Well… maybe a little.

_What an idiot… _ thought the girl. _I **said** that if he moved back five feet that I'd shut up._ She started to scream into her shrieks. "If you move back five feet I'll stop!" Her voice reached an eerily high pitch on the last word she said. She wondered if the noise was really as bad as her friends told her it was.

_Five feet? Why didn't she say that before?_ Syaoran released her and jumped back several feet at a time, until he was five feet away from her. "THERE!" he screamed at her into a sudden silence. A neighbour stuck his head out of the door. "SHADDUP!" He screamed. Syaoran ducked his head down. _Gah… _

"Stay back five feet and I won't do it again," she said, before starting to walk again.

Syaoran stood rooted to the spot. Then he started stalking after her. "How'd you do that?" he called out to her.

"Do what?" she said, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Make that weird noise without a whistle. How'd you do that?" That might be a neat trick to pick up. Maybe he could scare some girls his way with it.

"A bitch taught me," came her icy reply.

_A bitch taught her. It was a high-pitched scream. Isn't that funny? Bitch, dog, high-pitched dog call… Do you get it Syaoran? Do ya'? I know you do… but… why aren't you laughing? It's a funny joke… but… it doesn't… _

"That doesn't answer my question."

"No, it doesn't, now does it?"

Syaoran was flabbergasted. What right did this female have to talk to him like that? If things had gone according to plan, she would have been duct-taped and tranquilized by now, lying in the backseat of the van. He groaned inwardly.

"So what is the answer to my question?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"I'll tell you why you should tell me!" He yelled, running behind her and grabbing her shoulder. "Because –"

The shrieking began again. He pulled back from her, as if he had been burned. "GOD! Don't **do** that!" he screamed at her.

"Then stay five feet away from me!" she screamed right back at him. "That's all I ask, FIVE FEET!" She sighed. "Can't you do that? Stay five feet away? It's really not that hard. You can even talk to me. I don't really care. Mind you, I'm not really very good company, but that's okay." She gave him an odd quirky smile, tilting her head to the side. "Just stay away from –"

She started shrieking again, with Eriol's hand clamped down over her mouth. Eriol started screaming. She must have bit him. Or maybe he was just excited 'cause she was screaming. Syaoran had almost forgot that Eriol was going to get her from behind.

"MAKE HER STOP!" screamed Eriol.

"Make her stop what?" screamed back Syaoran.

"Make her stop SCREAMING!"

"Move back five feet and she'll stop."

Eriol dragged himself and the girl back away from Syaoran by six feet. Syaoran shook his head. "Away from the girl!" he yelled to Eriol. Sometimes Eriol was a little too dense for his own good.

Immediately, Eriol let go of the girl and ran to Syaoran. "What was that?" he asked, the second she stopped screaming. "I tried covering her mouth but it didn't work!" He held a roll of duct tape in his hand. "I couldn't even use this!"

"I know," said Syaoran. "She has this odd… scream technique."

"Yeah," snorted the girl. "And if you had taken the care to eavesdrop in on our conversation, you would have realized that I said to stay five feet away from me. Now," she said, brushing off her jeans, "I have to go."

"We'll go with you," said Syaoran, starting after her.

"Remember the five feet rule," she said, slinking off.

"Why do you need five feet?" asked Eriol, who was now walking next to Syaoran and rubbing his ears.

"I have social anxiety. If people get to close to me and make me feel uncomfortable I scream."

"But why five feet?" Eriol persisted. "There has to be some logical explanation."

The girl continued to walk down the street. "I have… a personal space limit. If you invade my personal space, I will attack you and make you get away from me and out of my territory. Is that really so hard to understand?"

"No… I just wanted to know…" Eriol shut up then. Even he knew when to back off.

"So…" said Syaoran. "Where ya' going?"

"Do you really think that I'm going to give you a real answer?"

"No, not really."

"Then why do you keep asking?"

"I don't know…" Syaoran trailed off. Eriol looked at him, confused yet again. What was going on here?

"Then why are you still following me?"

"It's a free country."

She turned abruptly and walked towards a house. They followed her halfway to the back until she suddenly whirled around. "It may be a free country, but this is private property. Get off this land in five minutes, before I call the cops." She stomped off and away and Syaoran looked after her.

"Uh… Syao?" asked Eriol, tugging on his blue sleeve.

Syaoran looked down at him. "Yeah?"

"We've got five minutes to spare, should we survey the house or something?"

Syaoran smiled. "You know, sometimes you get some pretty good ideas. Let's go hide in the bushes over there," he said, pointing to a large grouping of shrubs. "She won't be able to see us in there."

Eriol smiled. Hiding in bushes was his speciality. As he jumped into the shrubs, he felt the weight of his duct tape by his side. He wondered if he would get to use it. He helped Syaoran get into the bushes and wondered what Syaoran was thinking. Syaoran would have a plan, he always did. Eriol ripped the tape a bit and sniffed it. The fumes would help keep him calm until Syaoran gave him his orders. He sniffed at the duct tape again and the warm odour helped him remember other times he had spent like this… sitting in a bush… sniffing duct tape… awaiting orders.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later… Syaoran broke the silence and began to speak to Eriol. "When she comes out… she will be alone."

"How do you know she'll be alone?" interjected Eriol.

"I just do," replied Syaoran. "Call it intuition, call it mind telepathy, heck, you can even call it Bob, but I just know that."

"So… she comes out…"

"And then I come out from behind the bushes, like I've been waiting behind them, rather than inside them. Then while we're walking away, you come up from behind and smack her on the head with your roll of duct tape. It doesn't make sense to tape her mouth 'cause she can just do that odd shriek thing." Syaoran smiled. "You got that?"

"Got it boss."

"Any questions?"

"What do you think Tony's doing?"

Syaoran stared blankly forward, out of the bushes. "You know what Eriol? I don't think I really want to know."

* * *

Ten minutes later… at approximately 7:15 am, the auburn haired beauty turned the corner of the house. Syaoran got ready to jump behind the bushes, but he froze. There was someone… with her.

"Syao!" whispered Eriol, tugging on his arm. "Intuition, mind telepathy, and Bob were wrong! What are the odds of that?"

"Shut up," said Syaoran, smacking his hand over Eriol's mouth as he peered through the leaves for a better view. "I want to see this."

"SAKURA! Blossoming beauties of the day…" crooned the dark green haired male beside the auburn beauty. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… One…. Two… three…. SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE!"

"Shut up Dave, you're such a loser," said the auburn chick, pushing Dave on the chest.

"Syao," whispered Eriol, "I think his name is Dave!"

Syao gave him a look. "No? Really?"

"Yeah, really!"

Syaoran gave him a long look and gave his attention back to the apparent couple in front of him.

"Sakura… you're so pretty… gimme a kiss!" The Dave guy wrapped his arms around the auburn haired female and Syaoran's jaw twitched. Dave continued to give Sakura a very thorough kiss after which he held her in his arms as she blinked a few times, seemingly dazed.

_Ah… so his find did have a name; a name that was not Twenty-Two._

"Syao!"

"What Eriol?"

"The girl's name is… _Sakura_."

"I know Eriol."

"Okay good!"

"Shut up Eriol."

"…."

Syaoran snorted and put his eyes back to Sakura and Dave.

"What?" asked Dave, cocking his head. "I can't hear you."

"I didn't know you could do that!" said Sakura, blushing. Syaoran wondered what she was talking about. _Do what?_ "I mean… you're…" she trailed off.

"HEY! That doesn't mean…" Syaoran missed the end of what Dave said. He strained his ears, trying to hear their conversation.

"Really? So if I said… let's get it on! You'd take me to a bed and ravage me?" asked Sakura.

"Oh yeah, hell I'd take you on the floor right now, so be careful of what you say near me." The Dave guy growled at her. Syaoran growled inwardly. What was up with those two? He had thought that Sakura wasn't one of those popular skanks, but now… she was talking about getting it on? In _public?_

"Yeah, and then you'd prematurely ejaculate all over me before you even got the condom on, eh?"

"Hey!" shouted Dave. Eriol and Syaoran snickered beneath their leafy foliage. _Premature ejaculator? Oh the things you hear around the neighbourhood._ Syaoran tuned into what was being said, trying to stifle his guffaws with his fist. Eriol was doing the same beside him.

"That was only once!"

"Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say, dear." Sakura patted him on the head with her hand. "I believe you," she said in a condescending tone.

"Want me to prove it to you?" growled the now angry Dave.

"No, I don't want to take away your virginity."

"I am **not** a virgin and you know it!" _Tehe… Dave was sounding very girly now… a little… too girly?_

"Yeah, sorry, when did we do that? Three years ago? Two?"

"You damned well know when that happened." He leaned over and whispered into her ear.

Sakura burst out into laughter. "Ooooooooooh…. That was you? Oh my god, that was an awesome day… and night!"

"Gees, woman, you're like stoned. Quick, get into my car and I'll whisk you away to the wonderful world of Oz."

"Oz? Do I have to wear a bra?"

"I don't care; I don't even wear underwear." This set the both of them off and they snickered all the way to the car, which happened to be a regular looking black Honda Civic.

Dave opened Sakura's door for her and she stepped in, but not before she gave Dave a long sloppy kiss. It was disgusting to watch, but Syaoran couldn't keep his eyes off of them. Dave shut the door for her and she buckled in as he walked around. Once he was in, she gave him a huge kiss, yet again, before he started the car.

"So, I guess she has a boyfriend, eh, Syao?"

"No, that's her brother."

"WHAT?" whispered Eriol. "They're infectious?"

"I believe the correct term is… incestuous… and no, they're not. I was being sarcastic."

Syaoran kept his eyes on Sakura. There was something wrong with this picture… but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

He continued to stare at Sakura and then realized that she was staring _right at him and Eriol!_ His eyes widened and he looked behind him, hoping, for some odd reason, to see someone behind him, someone else that she was looking at. But there was no one. He turned to look at her again and saw her waving at him, cheerfully. And then she flicked him the finger and with a blow of a kiss and the roar of an engine… she was gone.

Syaoran sat, dumbfounded. He realized what had just happened. Sakura, she had known that they were in the shrubs and had gotten her friend to play along with her to get her away from them safely. He knew what had been pestering him about Dave. He was so flamboyantly homosexual. He filled in all the stereotypes. He growled to himself. He'd been outwitted by a victim!

"Syao… I think she was looking at us!"

"No, Eriol. She was looking at the ghost behind us."

Eriol jumped out of the bushes and turned around, facing the shrubs, duct tape unravelled and ready to be spun around any bothersome ghosts. He tilted his head. "Where's the ghost?"

"There is no ghost." Syaoran got out of the bushes and started to walk back to the van.

"You let it get away?"

"No, I didn't. There wasn't one to begin with."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the van. Have to make sure that Tony didn't fall asleep or something like that."

"Don't leave me here with the ghost!" Eriol shot after Syaoran who was thinking deeply. Thinking deeply of the only victim that had outsmarted him, not once, not twice, but multiple times and then had the gall to flick him the finger. The only victim named Sakura.

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WHOAT! That's it… it's over and done with… WOOOOOOOOOT! POOTY WOOT! Review me! or suffer from NISHIES… a rare disease caused by me biting you for not giving me enough reviews. The cure? Why, reviews of course!


	2. Making Up Lost Time

**Note: **I might repost this chapter after my beta sends me back an edited version. She says there isn't much wrong, so... I'm just posting this un-beta-ed... because I lurve you all. Mad props to my beta, Kathy. 

Mhmmm..... Okay... so y'all kind of liked that beginning chapter, eh? . I feel special. Well, here are some beautiful replies to reviews that I received.

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**[Reviews]**

**Syao-kun'sLOVER, sweet-little-girl, Kura-chan (glad you thought Eriol was funny, that's kind of what Id into consideration... but... -cough cough- what did you think about ****this** story? I'm glad you think it's "nice" and I'm glad that you want me to update **Find Hope **and **Drifting to the End**, but... this review was supposed to be for this story ; If you really want me to update **Find Hope **and **Drifting to the End**, try reviewing those stories. I do, however, thank you for the reviews. .

**Anime-angel45: **yeah, the point of the story was for Eriol to be a complete baka. It's 'cause he's a loser and also because I've been watching way too many British comedies about war in Socials class. =P

**Chibi-Manny:** Aw, thanks for saying so. I'm sure everyone thinks they should have more than five revCB>Anime-angel45: yeah, the point of the story was for Eriol to be a complete baka. It's 'cause he's a loser and also because I've been watching way too many British comedies about war in Socials class. =P

**Chibi-Manny:** Aw, thanks for saying so. I'm sure everyone thinks they should have more than five reviews, and would you look at that, I already have eleven. Woot, who's head is bursting from ego Mine is! Tehe, the wit comes from old British comedies from which I steal stupid lines, change them around, remove the British accents, make them more Canadian, and then stick in my story. =) I'm so glad that you love this story. . Woot! I can feel the lurve tonight, can you?

**Only Sakura:** WOOT! That's right, GO ME! Eriol is hilarious as a moron, but no one ever portrays him as one! Gees, people, learn to live a little! Make that Eriol an idiot! He's so cute like that. . ooh, extreme love for Sakura have I! O.o And weird, messed up grammar as well. =) I'm so glad you love it .

**zeddy222:** I'm glad that you think this is "so good." . Of course I'm going to write more! I can't just leave my story here to die! -gasp- that would be EVIL!

Oooooooooookay... Reviews are over. You all know what that means! It's time to send me millions of dollars to be able to read the next bit of the story. What? What do you mean that's illegal! It is not. It's... not, not illegal.... -cough- Fine... read... go ahead.... SEE IF I CARE.... –goes off in search of happy pills-

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**[Initial Beginning]**

"..." Speech

Italics or '...' Thoughts

[In the question, "What time is it?" what is it? Seriously. What is it?] A/N's

_Disclaimer: [I own... Jack Shit. Seriously, he's in my room right now. Yep... right there. ... OKAY I LIED!! I don't own Jack Shit... I don't even own diddly-squat. –cries- SEE! I'm so poor. Please don't take away my imaginary diddly-squat. It's all I've come to own... Oh... I don't own CCS either. All beautiful original characters are MINE, totally MINE. And so, you can't touch my beautiful Tony or my specialful Dave. That is all.]_

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**Unusual Job; Unusual Find**

**Chapter Two**

**Making Up Lost Time**

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Syaoran and Eriol neared the deep maroon van after a while. Eriol had been blathering away the entire time, trying to scream like the girl – Sakura – had. All he had been able to do was sound like a dying cat or monkey, or some odd sort of mammal in pain, and cause several dogs to howl. Syaoran on the other hand, had been thinking about Sakura herself. What an odd girl she was. He wondered if Tony would know anything. They reached the van and Syaoran looked for his keys. They weren't in his pockets. _Shit..._ He must have left them in the van.

He tapped on the tinted windows, hoping Tony would hear him.

Nothing happened.

Syaoran tapped against the windows again. Still nothing. Growling, he rapped the windows with his knuckles. Still nothing. Giving up all hope to remain quiet, Syaoran started banging on the windows with his fists.

Breathing hard, he turned around and leaned against the side of the van. He stared at Eriol, who was just standing around, still trying to make the weird scream. He looked like he was constipated. Syaoran got mad.

He bent over, intent on taking out his anger on Eriol; he grabbed a handful of rocks and chucked one at him, while he was still screeching. Eriol looked up, startled. "Did you see that?" he asked Syaoran.

"See what?" asked Syaoran, testily. _Let's play a game, Eriol..._

"Something hit my head..." he rubbed his head where the pebble had hit him.

"I hit you."

"No you didn't... It hit my head. Your arm would have to be like... really long if you wanted to hit me."

"Really?" Syaoran frowned. "Well... shut your eyes. And then we'll see. The second something hits your head... open your eyes... Okay?"

"Okay..." said Eriol. He shut his eyes and kept on talking. "It's not going to work... I mean—EEK!" He screamed when Syaoran's rock hit him on the head and his eyes flew open. His hand again rubbed his at his head. "How'd you do that?" he asked, in open-eyed wonder.

"Do what?" asked Syaoran, nonchalantly, playing with the pebbles in his hand.

"Hit me so fast!"

"Oh... that?" asked Syaoran.

"Yeah!" said Eriol, nodding his head emphatically. "How did you do that?"

"I didn't do anything," said Syao, mysteriously. _Time to screw with your mind... _

Eriol gave him a funny look. "Then who did?"

Syaoran pointed to the sky. "It came from up there."

Eriol looked up. "Where?" he said, looking up, bending over backwards.

"The sky is falling." _I wonder what he has to say to this... _

"What?"

"The sky is falling apart. Haven't you been paying attention to the news?" Eriol shook his head again and Syaoran frowned and sighed. "Really Eriol, what kind of a human are you? Not knowing that the Ozone layer is falling apart." He gave Eriol a look. "You do know that the Ozone layer is falling apart, right?"

"No... I thought it was just a ..." He trailed off.

"Well... it is... And bits and pieces are falling all over the ground as we speak, harming innocent bystanders, just like YOU." He started to juggle the pebbles between his hands.

Eriol looked up, eyes wide yet again. "On people, just like me?"

"Oh yeah..." Syaoran smirked, "People just like you... In fact... Oh my god! Eriol! To the right! Over there! Behind you! There's a piece right there!"

Eriol swirled to the right, trying to get a look at the non-existent bit of Ozone layer that was supposedly going to fall down on an unsuspecting bystander. Syaoran grabbed a pebble from mid-air and chucked it at Eriol's head.

"EEEEEEEKKK!" screamed Eriol.

_Hey... that's closer to that girl's scream than before... _

Eriol ran to the van shrieking, **pulled out a pair of keys**, opened the lock, and scrambled inside. Syaoran watched him in shock. Eriol screamed at him, "Get out of the OPEN, SYAORAN! You're going to get hit!" Once it was clear that Syaoran wasn't going to move, Eriol grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the van. Then he slammed the door shut and scrambled into the front seat, eager to tell everything he had just heard to Tony.

"Eriol..." said Syaoran, before Eriol could start speaking. Syaoran continued to stare down at the marron-carpeted floor of the van.

"Yeah, Syao?" asked Eriol, in his odd, slightly disconcerting voice. Syaoran had never stopped to think why his voice was so confusing, it just... was.

"How did you open the door?"

"With the keys," said Eriol, dangling a set of keys in front of him.

"Where did you get those keys?" asked Syao, slowly raising his head.

"From you. You gave them to me to keep for safekeeping, 'cause no self-respecting smartass would ever stop to think that the inferior part of the team would hold the keys. Least... that's what you said."

Syaoran ground his teeth together. "Why didn't you give me the keys when I was banging on the door?"

"Because you said that I shouldn't even **talk** about the keys, unless if I wanted to have my tongue cut out."

"But you saw me banging on the side of the BLOODY VAN AND—" Syaoran jumped and grabbed Eriol's collar between his fists. He was now within kissing distance from his face, but kissing Eriol was the farthest thing from his mind. What was in his mind was how he would get back at Eriol for making a fool of him in front of nameless blank people who lived within the vicinity. Or how he was going to kick his ass for being such an idiot. Or how he was going kill him for letting that auburn-haired bombshell get lost. Or how he was going to kick Eriol's ass for letting that gay Dave run off with Sakura. Or how he was going to neuter Eriol for letting that Sakura chick get the better of him. Or how –

Syaoran was flung from his perch right in front of Eriol backwards into the seat behind the front seats. Breathing hard, he realized that his hands still held onto bits of Eriol's camouflage shirt. Eriol was smeared against the dashboard and plucking at his shirt, or... at least what was left of his shirt. He was murmuring something while picking at the torn remains of his clothing. His tatters barely covered up his finely toned abs.

"My shirt! Oh, my shirt!" came out his first coherent words. Eriol grabbed at his tattered clothing and hugged himself, trying to cover himself up. He blushed a deep red and pushed his silver glasses up his nose again. "Oh, my gosh... My shirt!"

"Let me guess..." came a rolling drawl from the driver's seat. "You messed up?"

Eriol gave the driver a shocked look. "I didn't do it!"

The driver gave him a doubtful look. His wicked blue mohawk was squashed against the high headrest of the drivers seat. He never would lower it, he always kept the headrest in level with the back of his head, even though it squished the back of his Mohawk. He always said "I think the state of my neck would be more important to me if I had an accident than then state of my hair."

He was doubled over, his knees resting on the steering wheel. His tank top was black, as were his pants, which, if you asked any old lady, were too long, too baggy, and too full of zippered pouches to be decent. Who knew all the odd things he had stashed in his pants? His pants were held up by a belt, black leather, of course, and spike with short nails, something he had down by himself. The ends of the nails were flat, of course, but they still hurt if you slammed them against someone. He had a studded leather bracelet on one wrist and another on the other.

His ears were like sponges; there were so many holes up there, Syaoran sometimes wondered if Tony knew how many were up there. Eriol liked to put broken toothpicks through the holes when he was bored. Tony had told them that he (only) had twelve in each ear, but Syaoran wasn't sure if he believed him; the number could have been higher or lower. Tony also had a tongue stud, a shiny silver ball; a lip ring, off centre to the right; and an earring on his left eyebrow. Syaoran sometimes called him the human dartboard. Not that Syaoran didn't like his piercings; he, himself, would have loved to have piercings all over (maybe it would keep away some of those scary girls who always clamped down on him when he went out to clubs), but, alas, he was the go-getter. He had to keep his face clean and unmarked. Eriol would have liked to have piercings, but the poor chap was deathly afraid of needles. Any other type of pointy thing, he was fine with, even fire pokers, which were in fact, really large metal needles. But apparently, that didn't bother Eriol. But those tiny ones they used to shoot earrings into your ears did.

"Then who did?" he asked, his slow drawl quiet and smooth.

"Syaoran did it!" Eriol pointed at Syaoran, realized that he had just allowed the others to catch a glimpse of himself semi-naked, screeched, yanked his torn fabric closer to himself, and blushed a deep shade of red.

Tony snorted and pulled his knees down. "You have to get over this embarrassment Eriol," he said, as he took off his shirt. "Here." He flung it at Eriol and stuck his knees back on the steering wheel. "Put it on."

"Thanks so much Tony!" praised Eriol as he pulled on the tank top. It was a little bit much too large for him, but that didn't matter. Tony was taller than Eriol and Syaoran. At six feet and one inch, he towered over Eriol who was only five feet and seven inches tall. Syaoran was five foot eleven, tall enough to be noticed, but not in the bad way; yet another good reason for Syaoran to be the attacker.

Eriol pulled his tattered camouflage shirt off and stuck it on the floor. He stayed pressed against the door, however, his hand stuck to the handle. "It was him," he said, one more time.

"You said that already," drawled Tony. "Don't fall out."

"I wont!" said Eriol. "I'm just bracing myself. If he tries to get me again... I'll jump!" He grasped at the door handle yet again and tightened his grip. And then the door swung open and poor Eriol-san fell right out onto the hard, rock-strewn ground, cracked his head open, and began to feel his brains gush out of the huge hole in the back of his head; he could even feel his blood as it rippled out of his brain in messy gushes.

At least, that's what would have happened if the agile Tony hadn't reached over and grabbed Eriol from falling out of the van.

"Try to be a bit more careful, will you, Eriol?" he asked, as he leaned over, yanked Eriol out of harms way, and slammed the door shut. "Just sit down... I don't think Syaoran's going to try to hit you now."

The blue-mohawk-haired male leaned back in the driver's seat. He flicked his mirror so that he was looking at Syaoran. "Care to elaborate?" he said to the mirror.

Syaoran raised his eyes to the mirror and frowned.

"Did you mess up?" persisted Tony.

"Yeah," answered Syao.

"Well, ain't that interesting?" asked Tony to no one in particular. He flicked the mirror back to the regular position and put his legs back down to the floor. He put his seatbelt on over his bare chest. "Seatbelts on, kiddos," he said as h e grabbed the gearshift and put the van in drive. "Iz time to rooooooooooooooolll..." he said in an odd accent that none of the three friends could figure out.

Eriol smiled and sat back in his seat as they drove away. He clicked his seatbelt into position and tried to figure out a way to braid his strips of shirt into a tie or something.

Syaoran strapped himself in across his waist. He glared moodily out of a side window. Not only had he not taken any women the day before, but, to add insult to injury, it was already seven thirty five and he still hadn't gotten any today. He spread his arms along the edge of the seats and hung his head down.

He began to speak as Tony had known he would have. "She read my every move. Everything I did, she knew about it."

"Really?" Tony took a left turn.

"Yeah. It was insane. She even... she even saw through my summer school act and my backup plan to get her from behind the bushes. It was manslaughter. She knew exactly where Eriol and I were hiding. I don't get it."

"Has she been hit before?"

"You know as well as I do that she wasn't. This is our area, and I've studied the girls who we've hit hundreds of times. I have their names memorized, their faces memorized. I don't get it. This one was fresh."

"Tell me about it. What happened first?"

"I don't know..." said Syaoran, staring out the window again.

"When did things start to go bad? We're the best of the best, Syaoran, there's a reason we're called to talk to Boss personally all the time. We're special." Tony swerved a bit as some guy in a red sports car cut in front of them. The red sports car then continued on to cut in front of several other people and then it got stuck behind an SUV. The driver signalled to go in front of Tony and tried to, even though they both knew there wasn't enough room. "Ya' jackass," muttered Tony as the red sports car zoomed in front of him only to be stuck again. Just as the car zoomed off into another lane, Tony grabbed a gun from his pocket, lowered the window, and shot at the reckless driver's rear tire. "Try making some more trouble now," laughed Tony as he drove away, putting his revolver back into one of his many pockets.

"Tony," murmured Eriol from beside him, still braiding his shirt.

"Yeah, short stuff?" answered Tony, calmly driving.

"Why did you shoot that car?"

"You know... we've been over this before Eriol."

"I know Tony, can you say it again? Please? I keep forgetting."

"Liar," said Tony, as he switched lanes, "You just want to be reassured that I'm not evil."

"Yeah... that too."

Tony snorted and leaned back. "The way I see it... that guy was going to cause a car accident pretty soon, am I right, or am I left?"

"You're right Tony," answered Eriol.

"Well, if I stopped him from driving, then I have just saved the lives of many innocents... Right or left?"

"Right."

"So it's okay that I stopped him, right or left?"

"Right."

"So what are you so worked up over?"

Eriol gave Tony a weird look. "You did it again," he said, scrunching up his eyes and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

Tony cruised through an intersection. "Did what?" he asked innocently.

"You made my words go around."

"Did I ever repeat any of the words that you said in a different order?"

"No..."

"Do I have any motive to confuse you?"

"No..."

"Are you an idiot?"

"No!"

"Then stop acting like one, ya big loser." Tony pulled into a parking lot and switched off the engine. He pointed to his glove box and said, "There's gum in there," to Eriol. As Eriol rummaged through his glove box for gum he tapped his mirror and caught Syaoran's eyes in it again. "Care to continue?"

Syaoran gave him an odd look and frowned. "I tripped."

"You tripped?"

"Yeah, he tripped," piped up Eriol.

"This is Syao's story Eriol, try to keep quiet, please," said Tony.

"Okay," said Eriol, his mouth full of gum.

"I don't get it," said Syaoran, his eyes to the side window again.

"Don't get what?"

"Don't get why she..."

"Why she was smarter than you? Why she outwitted you? Don't sweat it. It wasn't your fault. For all we know, there's a girls organization that does the same thing we do to girls to boys."

"She sounded like a monkey," broke in Eriol.

"A monkey?" asked Tony.

"A monkey," replied Syaoran. "That's the other weird thing about her. She has this odd noise that she makes when people... 'invade her personal space.' It's like a high-pitched whistling noise."

"She had a whistle and you didn't detect it? My, my, getting sloppy, aren't we, Mr. Li?"

"No," said Syaoran, shaking his head, "I'm not sloppy. There was no whistle."

"If there was no whistle, then she was making the noise."

"Yeah, but I tried covering her mouth and that didn't work."

"So you tried covering her nose?"

"That didn't work either!"

"Did you try her ears?"

"Stop being stupid, Tony, you can't make noises out of your ear."

"Ah, that's what they said about cigarettes. You can't get cancer from a cigarette! And look at that, it turned out to be a lie."

"Yeah... well..."

"Trust me. If you ever see that chick again, just cover her ears, nose, and mouth. Then you calmly tell her to scream all she wants 'cause you don't care if she does die." Tony smiled ridiculously in the mirror. "Ta da! Instant silence. The second you threaten someone's life, they shut up, and they shut up fast."

"True..."

"So we go back to the path tomorrow, same time, grab the girl, and voila! We're done."

"Sounds like a plan..."

"It is... Now, quick, where shall we go?" asked Tony, getting his knees back down off the steering wheel. "To the front, to the back or to the see-saw side?"

"I like see-saws..." said Eriol, chewing on his gum.

"That you do, little man. So Syaoran, which way?" He flicked his mirror to the correct place.

"To the front."

"Zen ve go to ze front!" yelped Tony in a French accent. "En-ee-ting else zet vas bozering you, mon amie?" he asked as he drove out of the parking space.

"She knew what I was waiting in the bushes and she knew that I thought that she was alone and she knew my plan to come out and get her..."

Tony zoomed back into his parking spot. He cleared his throat. "And how do you know this?" he asked, all traces of his French accent gone.

"She walked out of the house with a guy, a flamboyantly homosexual guy, who was so homosexual that I didn't even notice that he was. They were making out and singing stupid songs as they walked to the car."

"Yeah, 'cept they were singing the words wrong," said Eriol, yet again breaking into the conversation. "He was like, let's go to Oz. And she was like, do I have to wear a bra? And he was like, I don't really care, 'cause I'm not wearing underwear. Those aren't even the right words, right Syaoran?"

Syaoran nodded and Eriol spoke again, "Sing the song, I can't remember the words."

Syao sighed, "Really Eriol, you're so much like a little kid sometimes, it's scary."

"Please?"

Syao took a deep breath,

"_In the land of Oz,_

"_Where the woman don't wear bras, _

"_And the men don't care, _

"'_Cause they don't wear underwear."_

Eriol snorted. "Hah, that's the one."

Tony and Syaoran exchanged odd glances through the mirror. "So," began Tony. "She knew all the tricks?"

"Yeah. All of them."

"Well... Maybe she was hit once... and then she just... got plastic surgery, changed her name, and decided to hang out here."

Syaoran gave him a sceptical look. "That is highly improbable."

"But not impossible." Tony put the van back into gear and headed out to "the front," an area where pickings were easy to come by. "Nothing is impossible," he said. "You know as well as I do that we should expect the unexpected by now. That way, we'll never be surprised." He drove out into the street.

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Pickings were very easy in "the front." Everything went by routinely. There were no mess-ups, no botched communications; everything was fine. In fact, they reached and went above their product quota. They got nine girls, rather than the desired five.

Time after time, Syaoran would walk behind a female, quietly, of course. Then he would grab her by the elbow, spin her around, clamp his hand over her mouth, pull her to the ground, take out a chloroform soaked cloth and hold it to her face until she went limp.

Eriol would be there by then, handy dandy duct tape by his side. He would expertly tape a small amount of tape over the female's mouth. Syaoran would lift the female, pull her arms behind her back, and Eriol would use his beloved duct tape to tape her wrists together in figure eights. Then Syaoran or Eriol, whoever's turn it was, would carry the girl the short distance to the van. Whoever wasn't carrying the girl would open the van door.

Once inside the van, the girl would be dumped onto the seat (which was already rolled flat) and unceremoniously tied down, for her safety and for theirs. If she were to wake up, she couldn't blindly attack them and hurt herself in the process. That had never happened yet, but there was a first time for everything.

Anywho, once she was tied down, Tony would rev the engine, which was pretty hard, considering that they were in a van, not a sports car, and drive down to HQ. They had done the drive to HQ so many different ways and at so many different times of night, they all seemed to know every possible way in.

Once at HQ, Tony would drive into the garage, where several masked workmen were. Tony would flash his ID to them and then they would drive into their designated parking space. The parking space had the words "Team Queue" painted on the wall in front of it. Eriol had been in charge of getting the name to the painters and had messed it up. They had all agreed on "Right On Cue," to show how they were always... well, right on cue. Eriol, the _loser_, had gone to the painter and said, "_Write on Q_." The painter had painted Team Queue, assuming that Eriol had meant to write the word "Queue" out on the wall. When they had seen the writing on the wall, they had all been outraged...for different reasons. By the time the real reason that they had become Team Queue had come to the surface, Syao and Tony were both chasing Eriol around in random circles until they fell to the floor in heaps, laughing too hard to breath properly while lying down, let alone breathe while running. Later on, they had been insanely amused by the weird way words could be interpreted.

Once in the parking spot, Tony would exit and grab the papers that were in one of the two files that were hanging underneath the words, "Team Queue." Tony would fill in the information packet with his neat, legible writing while several more masked men got into the van and took off with the female. Then Tony would place the packet into the second file folder and their journey would begin again.

As for the girl, she would be taken away and Boss would give his customers a round with her. Her chloroform would, of course, be touched up every couple of hours, until the round of customers using her were finished. Then the female would be rubbed down, as in cleaned off, and put into yet another van. This van would carry her to wherever she came from. She would awake about half an hour after the drop off. The entire process, from kidnapping to drop-off usually took no more than three hours, or four if the female was really pretty or if the males were really horny.

When she awoke, in her hand would be a small token of happiness from Boss, well... small for Boss. Enclosed in a small envelope would be ten hundred dollar bills, that's one _thousand_ dollars. Also in her hands she would find a small, type-written note, telling her that if she ever wished to make a quick grand again, instructions as to where to go and what to do. Several of Boss's regular females had been picked up this way.

However, need for fresh meat was high and so, Team Queue always had a job. And why wouldn't they? They were the best of the best, the keenest of the keen, the smartest of the... well... Eriol kind of lowered their smart marks... and their keenness... but they were still the best of the best! Boss kept them employed for one reason; when they did the job, they did it right. In that sentence, the one preceding this one... right meant quickly, quietly, stealthily, and without mistakes. At least... until today.

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"You know..." said Tony as he finished filling in the mandatory forms once again. "I kind of have to fill out an incident report."

Syaoran shook his head. He was standing; leaning against the cool exterior of the maroon van. Eriol liked to call it the "Maroon Vroom, Vroom Machine"... But that was only in his head and when he thought no one was listening. Speaking of Eriol, he was sitting cross-legged on the ground, also leaning against the van. He, however, did not have his arms crossed across his chest. He was using his hands to stretch out his now extremely flavourless gum in front of him and see how far it would go.

"Please don't get gum on my shirt," said the still shirtless Tony to Eriol. Tony rubbed his abs subconsciously, wondering what was going to happen to his favourite black tank. He hoped, really hoped, for Eriol's sake, that he wouldn't get gum on it.

"Don't," said Syaoran.

Tony swung his head towards Syaoran. "Don't what?"

"Don't fill in the form."

"I have to. You know we do. It's regulations."

"Just... just go against regulations once," Syaoran uncrossed his arms and allowed them to fall to his sides. He shut his eyes and pushed his fists against the metal exterior of the van. "Just... don't." He opened his eyes and looked forward, at nothing.

"I have to, you know that I do."

Syaoran's eyes turned to him, and he began to speak again. "Just don't, just this once." He started walking around. "You said we were going after the girl tomorrow. She'll be there and we can get her back and presto, nobody knows that we screwed up."

"That you screwed up," corrected Tony.

"Yeah, that I screwed up."

Tony's mouth twitched. He hated going against regulations. He was a reformed druggie, gangster, alcoholic, prostitute, arsonist; you name the addiction, the stereotype, he was it. They were all kind of interrelated... he used his gangster status to get cheap drugs and booze; he prostituted to get money for drugs and booze; he used the drugs and booze not only for his own means, but he used the alcohol for his acts of arson; he used the money he got from arson to get more booze and drugs. Oh, the time consuming circle, easy to enter, near impossible to leave. Boss had helped him out, thought, gone against all odds and showed him the straight, clean road after finding him running a strip down by the airport one cold night. He had take Tony under his wing and shown him how to be a real man, a real man who had values and respected others. Of course, little quirks of his personality, like his habit of shooting at the tires of bad drivers still held fast; without those quirks, Tony just wouldn't be Tony. But Tony was now obligated to follow the rules. Now... which was more important; His saviour, or one of his best friends?

Syaoran watched as Tony contemplated on what to do. At least, he tried to watch. That stupid Tony's eyes were so unreadable sometimes. He waited. He watched Eriol pull gum out of his mouth instead.

"Fine," said Tony in his usual, casual drawl.

Syaoran's head snapped to look at him. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah."

Syaoran gave him an odd look. "What's the catch?"

Tony shrugged. "You owe me something. And if you screw up again, you're taking all the blame."

"Fair enough," said Syaoran. "But I'm not going to screw up again. That's impossible."

"Improbable," said Tony as he shook Syaoran's hand, sealing the bargain. "Anything is possible if you put your mind to it."

"Uh oh..." rang out Eriol's voice. Tony and Syaoran glanced at him and realized that Eriol wasn't next to Syaoran anymore. He was on the other side of the van.

"What's wrong?" asked Syaoran.

"Uh... nothing," called out Eriol.

"What do you mean... nothing?" asked Tony, a suspicious look in his eyes.

"I mean nothing..."

Syaoran and Tony exchanged dubious looks and started walking around the van. Tony got around it first to see Eriol sitting on the floor, cross-legged yet again. He _looked_ normal. Then again, appearances could be deceiving, and in Eriol's case, they could be very deceiving indeed.

"Where's your gum?" asked Syaoran.

"I swallowed it," came Eriol's reply.

"Swallowed your gum?" repeated Tony.

"Yep. Swallowed."

"No, you didn't."

Eriol gave him a weird look. "Yeah, I did."

"No, you didn't," said Tony again. "The last time you tried to swallow gum, half of it got stuck in your mouth and the other half went down your throat. Remember? You were shrieking like a banshee and you said that you'd never do that again."

"Uh..." Eriol slowly stood up.

"What did you do with the gum, Eriol?" asked Tony.

"Nothing..." said Eriol.

"Give me my shirt then," said Tony, sticking out his arm.

"No... Then... uh... _I'd be NEKKID,"_ whispered Eriol.

"Aha... doesn't really matter," said Tony. "We've seen you _NEKKID_ before. Well... at least half of you."

Syaoran snorted from behind Eriol. "Eriol, you idiot, you're wearing the shirt inside-out. Here, let me fix it for you." He grabbed at the bottom of Eriol's shirt just as Eriol screamed.

"Nooooo!" he yelled, also grabbing at the shirt. "Don't rape me!"

Tony and Syaoran both sweatdropped. "We're not raping you, loser!" said Tony. "Just put the shirt on the right way, will ya?"

"Uh..." Eriol loosened his grip on the shirt. "But it's so pretty."

"And you're too slow," said Syao as he yanked up Eriol's shirt and pulled it off his head and realized why the shirt was inside out.

A long trail of gum went from the outside of the shirt to Eriol's chest. Eriol peeled at the gum on his chest manically. "Oh," he sputtered, "how'd that get there?" The tank was smothered in sticky gum and Eriol's sweat.

Tony started to breathe heavy and Syaoran noticed. "Quick!" he screamed to Eriol. "RUN!"

Eriol took the cue and ran down the parking lot to the guardsmen waiting at the door for more drop-offs. The trail of gum stuck to his side and trailed back to Tony's shirt for a long time until it finally snapped. Tony growled and ran after Eriol, eager to rearrange his face a bit. He had told him not to get gum on his shirt... and what Eriol done? He had gotten gum on his... SHIRT! His favourite shirt!

Eriol squeaked as he passed the guards and was halfway down the block when he realized that he was half-naked and partially covered in gum. Tony was fast approaching from behind. So he did what any rational quick thinking male would do if they were put in his position; he jumped in front of a car waiting for its turn at the intersection and played dead.

* * *

Toot, toot. Chew-chew, chew-chew, caboogey. Er... yeah... that's kind of it for now. Toot, toot! . I lurve fanfiction. I lurve this chapter. I lurve my reviewers. If you wish to keep me full of lurve... review... 'cause you know what happens when I lose my lurve... I go insane and infect everyone with NISHIES. Kind of the same way they did in _Twenty-Eight Days Later_. . Toot, toot = my noises of lurve.

Until next time... when I'll still be me. . Toot, toot! review me!

_NEKKID..._[toot, I lurve that word]


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